They Had To Kill Vermonica to Save Her

Gentle reader...

Last week, we shared the the troubling news that Vermonica, artist Sheila Klein’s installation of historic Los Angeles streetlights (created 15 years before Chris Burden’s Urban Light at LACMA) has been mysteriously removed and its elements reinstalled a few blocks away.

We're fascinated by the complex issues raised by a volunteer-powered piece of public art created out of historic city-owned light poles and installed on private property, which outlived its planned demise by two decades only to be unceremoniously dismantled. So we made it our business to reach out to artist Sheila Klein and the various city offices that have oversight, to help build the bridge to discussions about how Vermonica can be truly reborn. And those discussions have already begun.

While it was shining in the old Hollytron parking lot these past 24 years, Vermonica was always vulnerable. Ironically it's only now, after its unceremonious removal, that we can have a real conversation about how to preserve Vermonica as an essential piece of the city's creative history.

You'll find Sheila Klein's statement about what's happened to her work on our blog, and can learn more from this interview with the artist on KCRW's DNA and Carolina Miranda's feature in today's Los Angeles Times.

And while we await news of what's next for an iconic Los Angeles artwork, here's Huell Howser at the site on opening day, talking with the many dedicated volunteers and passionate Angelenos who brought this magical Urban Candelabra to life. May she rise again!

We're back on the bus on Saturday with our second-to-last tour of the year, Pasadena Confidential. Climb aboard the crime bus for a wild day's storytelling about deranged rocket scientists, black magicians, women who can't take it anymore and the inappropriate pets of millionaires. Join us, do!

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RECENTLY TOURED

When we came to the crypt of Carolyn Jones, we saw that a spider had trapped a giant grasshopper right in front of her Morticia photo! See more scenes from Richard's birthday bus adventure here.

LAVA'S FORENSIC SCIENCE SEMINAR - SUN. 3/4

Four times a year, we gather in the teaching crime labs of Cal State L.A. to explore the history and future of American forensic science. On March 4, 2018, join us for Wrongful Convictions: Investigatory Case Studies from the California Innocence Project. Your $36.50 ticket benefits graduate level Criminalistics research.

GIVE THE GIFT OF... US!

The holidays are upon us, and with them the obligation to come up with something agreeable for all kinds of people. We'd like to make gift shopping easy on you, with the gentle suggestion that an Esotouric gift certificate is always the right size and color. The recipient can chose from something naughty or nice from our wide range of bus adventures, and you'll save on our regular ticket prices when you buy three or more before 12/24. For more info or to reserve, click here.

COMING SOON

PASADENA CONFIDENTIAL - SAT. 12/2... The Crown City masquerades as a calm and refined retreat, where well-bred ladies glide around their perfect bungalows and everyone knows what fork to use first. But don't be fooled by appearances. Dip into the confidential files of old Pasadena and meet assassins and oddballs, kidnappers and slashers, black magicians and all manner of maniac in a delightful little tour you won't find recommended by the better class of people. (Buy tickets here.)

HOTEL HORRORS & MAIN STREET VICE - SAT. 12/9... Through the 1940s, downtown was the true city center, a lively, densely populated, exciting and sometimes dangerous place. But while many of the historic buildings remain, their human context has been lost. This downtown double feature tour is meant to bring alive the old ghosts and memories that cling to the streets and structures of the historic core, and is especially recommended for downtown residents curious about their neighborhood's neglected history. (Buy tickets here.)

THE REAL BLACK DAHLIA - SAT. 1/6... Our traditional first tour of the year, which falls on or near the anniversary of Beth Short's kidnapping. Join us on this iconic, unsolved Los Angeles murder mystery tour, from the throbbing boulevards of a postwar Downtown to the quiet suburban avenue where horror came calling. After multiple revisions, this is less a true crime tour than a social history of 1940s Hollywood female culture, mass media and madness, and we welcome you to join us for the ride. This tour usually sells out, so don't wait to reserve. (Buy tickets here.)

RAYMOND CHANDLER'S LOS ANGELES - SAT. 1/13... Follow in the young writer's footsteps near his downtown oil company offices to sites from The Lady in the Lake and The Little Sister, meet several real inspirations for the Philip Marlowe character and get the skinny on Chandler's secret comic operetta that we discovered in the Library of Congress nearly a century after it was written. Plus a stop at Scoops for noirish gelato creations and a visit to Larry Edmunds Bookshop. (Buy tickets here.)

THE BIRTH OF NOIR: JAMES M. CAIN'S SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA NIGHTMARE - SAT. 1/20... This tour digs deep into the literature, film and real life vices that inform that most murderous genre, film noir, rolling through Hollywood, Glendale and old Skid Row, lost lion farms, murderous sopranos, fascist film censors, offbeat cemeteries -- all in a quest to reveal the delicious, and deeply influential, nightmares that are author Cain's gift to the world. (Buy tickets here.)

Additional upcoming tours: The Lowdown on Downtown (1/27), Special Event: Two Days in South LA: The 1974 SLA Shootout (2/10), Weird West Adams (2/17), Boyle Heights & Monterey Park (2/24).

OUR HISTORIC L.A. PODCAST

In Episode #122: Bunker Hill & The French Village: Two Lost Los Angeles Neighborhoods Taken By Eminent Domain, two stories of families torn from the places they loved, and the memories that survive. Plus another Pereira in Peril, Ports O' Call shopkeepers & more. Click here to tune in. New: find stories on the map!

AND FINALLY, LINKS

Worrying about Grand Central Market, and the mysterious fashion start-up that's leased the Million Dollar Theatre.

Restoration planned for Irving Gill's terrific little 1914 Etiwanda depot on the Pacific Electric trolley line.

From the wreckage of Cinefamily, L.A. women are programming up a storm.

The Cranky Preservationist, who loves Los Angeles and HATES what you’re doing to it, returns! Episode 13: Golden Arch Hawk Taco Blues (on Facebook and YouTube).

An incredible silent film treasure has emerged from its tomb in the Guadalupe dunes. We're overdue for another road trip!

Last time renderings were released, a proposal to redesign Pershing Square erased 100 years of historic monuments and memorials. Have they been added to Agence Ter's park plan, or are they still MIA?

The L.A. Weekly's editorial department axed by the shadowy cabal that bought the paper.

Rediscovered in a 1925 crime magazine, a lost Dashiell Hammett tale is found.

yrs,
Kim and Richard
Esotouric